LATINO GANG IN L.A. ALLEGEDLY TARGETS BLACKS

The Associated Press is reporting that a Latino gang in Los Angeles puts regular hits on black snitches and rival gangsters, or any black person who is within striking distance, an investigation found.


There were even instances in which Florencia 13 leaders ordered killings of black gangsters and then, when the intended victim couldn't be located, said "Well, shoot any black you see," Los Angeles County Sheriff Lee Baca said.


"In certain cases some murders were just purely motivated on killing a black person," Baca said.


Authorities say there were 20 murders among more than 80 shootings documented during the gang's rampage in the Florence-Firestone neighborhood, exceptional even in an area where gang violence has been commonplace for decades. They don't specify the time frame or how many of the killings were racial.


The gang's name comes from the neighborhood that is its stronghold and the 13th letter of the alphabet — M — representing the gang's ties to the Mexican Mafia. Federal, state and local officials worked together to charge 102 men linked to F13 with racketeering, conspiracy to murder, weapons possession, drug dealing and other crimes.


The gang is believed to have about 2,000 members extending to Nevada, Arizona and into prisons, where prosecutors say incarcerated gang leaders were able to order hits on black gangsters.


According to the indictment, F13's leader, Arturo Castellanos, sent word in 2004 from California's Pelican Bay State Prison that he wanted his street soldiers to begin "cleansing" Florence-Firestone of black gangsters, notably the East Coast Crips, and snitches. His followers eagerly obeyed, according to federal prosecutors.


In one case, F13 members came across a black man at a bus stop, shouted "Cheese toast!" and fired. "Cheese toast" is a derogatory name for East Coast Crips, Assistant U.S. Attorney Kevin S. Rosenberg said.


The victim, apparently targeted only because of his skin color, survived being shot several times, Rosenberg said.


F13 isn't the only Latino gang linked to racial killings. Last year, four members of The Avenues, a gang from the Highland Park area east of downtown Los Angeles, were convicted of hate crimes for killing a black man in what prosecutors called a campaign to drive blacks from that neighborhood. And last January, authorities announced a crackdown on the 204th Street gang following the killing of a 14-year-old black girl.


The violence goes both ways, said Adam Torres, a Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department gang detective whose beat includes Florence-Firestone. During a recent patrol on the east side of the neighborhood, he pointed to a cinderblock wall peppered with bullet holes. Torres said the Crips still control that area and any Hispanic there is at risk of being shot.